The legendary wrestler once billed as the "Eighth Wonder of the World" made his home on a ranch in the small town of Ellerbe.
BACK IN THE DAY
The Time when North Carolina’s Governor Pardoned Slow Poke the Possum
Gov. Bob Scott once vowed that he "shall not be thwarted in my appetite for opossum." Except one time, when he was.
The Sky is Her Limit
The first woman to earn an engineering degree from NC State, Katharine Stinson rose to an amazing career as a flight engineer.
The Insurance Company That Powered Durham’s Black Wall Street
North Carolina Mutual was founded by a formerly enslaved man. By serving a community that had been ignored, it helped its hometown thrive.
The Masters and the Man from Morganton
In 1954, Billy Joe Patton, an amateur golfer from North Carolina, qualified for the sport's most storied tournament. He almost won.
The Legend of Ocracoke’s Old Quork
In Ocracoke lore, a hermit-like fisherman named Old Quork supposedly went fishing on March 16 and never returned. Sailors, be warned.
If You Give a Kid a Goat Cart
A discovery of archival photographs begged the question: Did everyone have a goat cart in the 1930s?
The Outer Banks Society That Believes the Wright Brothers Never Flew
The Man Will Never Fly Memorial Society was created in 1959 because, in the words of its founders, they were bored.
Space Seeds: Moon Trees in Western North Carolina
Back in 1971, astronaut and former U.S. Forest Service smoke jumper Stuart Roosa carried more than 400 seeds into space with him on Apollo 14. Two of those seeds found a new home in North Carolina.
